Sorry to exhume this corpse of a thread, but having remembered some nice matches I had with PES6, and going back to PES5 and having this exact problem, I wanted to figure out what other players thought of it. I'm surprised to find it's not just me who thinks the AI is simply infuriating, the only low point of an otherwise spectacular game.
Just this week I had my heart nearly going out the mouth when, playing with Brazil, I managed to hold Mexico to a 0-0 draw and take the match to penalties. I suck at saving penalties, so the less I try to take the match there, the better. I was lucky to win because the AI does make some stupid misses, but that's the only time when the AI seems to dumb down on me; the match ending with 61% possession for the CPU. And now I'm having trouble beating Paraguay. Paraguay! Can you believe it? Friggin' Paraguay!!! Regardless of how good its defenders are, with Ronaldinho and Ronaldo up front I shouldn't have a problem, right? WRONG. They anticipate my every dribble, I can't outrun them but they can easily outrun me, they're always in position to cut my through passes (and I do look at the radar to find someone in position), they keep escaping my markers, they pass the ball with millimetrical position, they dribble every which way right in front of me and I can't steal the ball no matter how close I get... The works. And to make matters worse, every slight contact I make is reason for the referee to whistle for foul, or give advantage to force me to keep still for a second - and in a game this fast, one second can make all the difference in the world.
I still play this game simply because it's, like I said, spectacular (and it's the best and last chance I have to play the Bundesliga on PES), but when its single flaw sticks out like a sore thumb, that's hardly forgivable. Like it's been said before, not every match needs to be a hard-fought 1-0 or a 0-0 with defenses dominating, 'cause that only makes football boring. And the gap between 2* and 3* is so wide, it could well be a crevice leading into an abyss, which makes the learning curve extremely punishing. Theoretically an average gamer should only start having trouble with 4*, but that's not the case here.
Too bad this game's already 12 seasons old, else I could have my voice join the others. But I'm thankful Konami took care to remedy this with PES6 (even though I still don't forgive them for pulling out the German League).
..sadly i'm hearing things about pes6 that I don't like.